The HfP chat thread – Saturday 1st May

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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General

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Sharon says:

1 May1 May 10:37

Hi, I had BAPP which I downgraded after earning the sign up bonus. Can I upgrade back to the BAPP when I am close to £10k spend?
- MilesOnPoint says:
  
  1 May1 May 10:54
  
  Yes. Have done this many times. Would recommend upgrading just *before* you hit £10k spend as then voucher will auto trigger with 24 month (+6 at the moment) expiry date. Reports from others that if you upgrade after £10k hits voucher can be incorrectly be issued with 12 month expiry and it’s a pain to try and correct.
  - Sharon says:
    
    1 May1 May 11:24
    
    Thank you
The Original Nick. says:

1 May1 May 11:03

If anyone is after an Avios reward seat out to Sydney from LHR next April theres a seat available on the 12th I just saw.
Phil says:

1 May1 May 11:09

Just wanted to share a really positive CSA experience I’ve just had with BA.

We were due to fly EDI-LGW-MRU today returning in two weeks on Avios using a companion voucher in Club World. The flights were originally booked last May, so the ticket validity would be expiring soon.

I rang up today to reschedule the flights, fully expecting to run into the usual issues of no reward availability, ticket validity, ignoring pax rights, etc. And initially that was the case. I think I must’ve got through to South African CS team and the lady immediately threw up the ticket validity/system limitation issue.

When I protested and mentioned EU261, CSA1 put me through to the Avios team in the UK. This is when the customer service became immediately excellent. CSA2 took me through security, asked when I wanted to rebook and found me available seats (not Avios availability just normal Club World availability). She was cheerful, happy to help and knowledgeable.

To be honest, having seen some experiences on here about rebooking Avios/Companion Voucher reservations, I was apprehensive about making the call. However CSA2 made the experience incredibly pleasant. Hopefully I didn’t just get lucky with my CSA and this is a change of approach by BA but if it isn’t I’m genuinely thankful I got the CSA I did.

Now fingers crossed we can actually go to Mauritius. This is the second time the trip has been cancelled due to Covid-19, so hopefully third time lucky.
- Harry T says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:38
  
  UK based BA call centre are usually great, especially if you get the Newcastle team. BA holidays probably even better.
  
  Did you manage to move your flights beyond the end of ticket validity, then?
  - Phil W says:
    
    1 May1 May 23:08
    
    Yep 6 months beyond the ticket validity.
- Jill (Kinkell) says:
  
  1 May1 May 13:17
  
  Mauritius is worth waiting for! Been a number of times, I fact it was my first BA Avios 241 redemption on a 747 in the days when the flight left from LHR. Really wanting to go back and chill
  - WaynedP says:
    
    2 May2 May 09:08
    
    +1
    
    Best scuba dive I’ve ever had !
- Tariq says:
  
  1 May1 May 17:34
  
  Good result, just had the same conversation with You First and they have refused to rebook me due to Avios availability and ticket validity.
  - Anna says:
    
    1 May1 May 22:13
    
    You First are going downhill fast – they refused to recalculate the taxes that on a return leg from BOS recently so I had to cancel and rebook – the CSA’s supervisor backed her up as well! Still need to put in a complaint about that as I ended up £100 out of pocket.
IF1 says:

1 May1 May 11:22

Was recent Harrods offer targeted towards platinum cardholders? I see the offer on main card and 3 other supp card, usually isn’t this generous?

Does anyone know if there was a similar offer for Harrods Amex holders? I closed mine earlier this year
- Andrew says:
  
  1 May1 May 11:53
  
  I certainly got it on all my Plat supps – so that’s a total of £250 back on a £1000 spend which I’m happy with as I spend that much a month in Harrods anyway. I think the offer on other card types was the 20% back, so you needed to spend £250 to make back the max £50, but had the flexibility of only needing to spend say £100 and get £20 back.
  - IF1 says:
    
    1 May1 May 12:28
    
    Surprised Harrods card doesn’t have a more generous offer, last one was £75 off £200 spend in October last year
- Rob says:
  
  1 May1 May 13:11
  
  The ‘free money’ one was only for Platinum. The ‘£50 back on £200’ was on my Platinum but that may just have been luck.
Reney says:

1 May1 May 11:33

My Airtime reward from Morrison has mostly paid out now. Which got me wondering about people who got 3 figures worth of Airtime Reward. My mobile bill is only £6 per month, I am gifting reward to family members and I still won’t be paying any mobile bill for the next 12 months. How are you spending yours?

p.s thanks to HeadForNoPoints for posting about the spend £10 get £5 bonus spend last weekend. Quick pop into local boots for £10 gift card and now £5 bonus has landed.
- HeadingForNoPoints says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:23
  
  No problem, I did the same thing for boots.
  
  My EE account just sits in credit now.
- ChrisC says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:58
  
  I wish I’d gone to Boots last Sunday rather than Monday as that has tracked whereas the transaction I had for Primark (don’t judge me I just needed some cheap jogging bottoms and there was no queue) on Sunday has yet to track
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  1 May1 May 13:03
  
  First time for me with a hefty balance so I sent a few £10 redemptions to my Vodafone account and it doesn’t seem to have only applied the first £10 credit.
  
  Will give it a few more days
  - Joe says:
    
    1 May1 May 16:31
    
    Mine hasn’t either – when is it supposed to appear?
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      1 May1 May 16:36
      
      The doesn’t wasn’t meant to be in my post. Poor editing on my part.
      
      So I sent £10 on the 28th April (around midday) and then 3 more in the evening when I realised I couldn’t sent any to my mum/sisters sky contract. I can see £10 on my account today which I’m assuming is my mid day transfer.
      
      I’m now holding off sending the other £100 until my other credits show up.
- Yorkie Aid says:
  
  1 May1 May 13:10
  
  +1 HeadingForNoPoints Nice £5 bonus for my Holland and Barrett spend. Thank you! 🙂
- Will says:
  
  2 May2 May 00:40
  
  .Presumably you can ask for any credit balance to be refunded though?
  
  With o2 you can take a contract for a new phone once your up for renewal and pay for the phone over, I think 2 or 3 months. That’s my backup if mine ends up paying.
tom1 says:

1 May1 May 12:07

this is really off topic, but confident there will be someone here with good advice and possibly experience!

Moving overseas this summer, and want to keep my mortgaged UK home, and let it out while I’m away.

I have one year remaining on my current 5yr mortgage fix. My current lender has said they will charge a 1% fee for permission to let, but they do not offer BTL mortgages, so in a year’s time if I am still overseas when my discount ends, the rate will go to the SVR +1% fee. Which will be a lot.

I have a feeling remortgaging to a BTL in a year’s time, as a non-UK resident, will be harder than swapping to a BTL now as a UK citizen+resident. If I do this now, I believe I will have to pay an early-redemption fee, which I will look into.

Any experience of getting BTL as non UK-resident, or hints/tips to look out for please? (I will ask mortgage advisor also, but I trust you lot more….)
- Louie says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:35
  
  Probably too late for you (depending on your reason for moving abroad), but HSBC have a very user friendly approach to people renting out their homes – but according to this https://www.hsbc.co.uk/mortgages/existing-customers/rent/ you have to have had the mortgage for six months first. We’ve been renting our home for six years at regular HSBC rates and have remortgaged to new products twice in that time (although that is not supposed to be possible, the system allows you to).
  
  Remortgaging to a BTL as a non-UK resident will indeed likely be very difficult. We wanted to buy a place over here last year, but needed a mortgage. Couldn’t get a mortgage here because the majority of our income arises in the UK (despite having other property here owned outright valued at maybe 4x the mortgage we wanted), nor could we get a mortgage on a BTL owned outright in the UK because we are non-UK resident. Had to abandon that idea.
  
  I would definitely remortgage before you go if I were you.
  - Louie says:
    
    1 May1 May 12:48
    
    That was using a broker by the way…..
  - gareth says:
    
    1 May1 May 12:58
    
    What you are doing here is breaking the t and c’s of mortgage.
    - Louie says:
      
      1 May1 May 13:25
      
      Because we changed products? The only reason I know we are not supposed to be able to do that is because of a “by the way” comment from a staff member after the event. Certainly never been advised of that in any document.
      
      Or for some other reason?
      - Yuff says:
        
        1 May1 May 13:38
        
        HSBC aren’t friendly when you earn more than 50% of your income, from property, in respect of BTL mortgages……..as in they won’t consider your income at all……..
        And I’ve banked personally and business wise with them for over 20 years personally 30 years via a company bank account.
    - Yuff says:
      
      1 May1 May 13:32
      
      How is it breaking the t&c’s?
      They’ve already said they don’t want to continue with their current mortgage?
      - Yuff says:
        
        1 May1 May 13:35
        
        Ahhhh Looks like you were commenting on Louie not Tom…..🤦🏻‍♂️
      - Gareth says:
        
        1 May1 May 13:41
        
        Yeah it was a comment to Louie. It’s in the mortgage conditions that it’s a property occupied by you are a direct one up one down member of family. Knowingly breaching these is effectively mortgage fraud as you are avoiding the higher costs associated with a btl mortgage. They do accept non uk residents to have btl mortgages btw, criteria is softer than if you were a resident too!
      - Louie says:
        
        1 May1 May 13:47
        
        I don’t know what you mean by this “It’s in the mortgage conditions that it’s a property occupied by you are a direct one up one down member of family”. But if you think we don’t have consent to let from HSBC then there has been a misunderstanding somewhere. We do.
- Memesweeper says:
  
  1 May1 May 13:32
  
  BTL mortgages can also be hard to find if you don’t have another house to live in (which would obviously be the case if living abroad).
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    1 May1 May 16:37
    
    Because it’s often viewed as though you might be getting a BTL to buy a home above what your income allows and therefore higher risk
  - Will says:
    
    2 May2 May 00:46
    
    I’ve always found that quite amusing.
    
    The idea that they’ll lend money for a BTL in the assumption someone can pay the fair market rent for said property, someone unknown to the bank with zero income verification by the bank when the mortgage is approved, but if they think that person might be you they make a determination on the lack of affordability.
    
    In truth, if most renters had to pass the same affordability criteria as home owners they would be deemed not to be able to afford the rent, yet someone has a mortgage based on their rent payments.
HeadingForNoPoints says:

1 May1 May 12:36

Just echoing @Genghis comment regarding supp amex cards, I could not add to my online account yesterday when the card arrived but could do so today. The card is only showing on the iOS app and not on the website.
- TJ says:
  
  1 May1 May 17:05
  
  +1 Their IT seems to be playing catch-up!
Louie says:

1 May1 May 12:47

Anyone doing the AAdvantage 40th anniversary spin thing? I’m glad it’s nearly over because I’m getting decidedly bored. 91 spins for me, 91 spins for hubby. Zero wins each. Apparently it is random. Ha ha.
- bafan says:
  
  1 May1 May 14:34
  
  I’ve won about 5000 miles at this point but the rewards have definitely gotten sparser as it’s gone on…
- whiskerxx says:
  
  1 May1 May 15:02
  
  No wins? Wow.
  Two accounts in our household, each a/c had winnings of 4500+ on Thursday alone. Wins most days.
  A big thank you to whoever mentioned it first on here.
- David D says:
  
  1 May1 May 16:57
  
  I’ve won about 800 miles so far. Any idea how these can be used as I don’t think AA can be linked to UK Amex for transfers
  - meta says:
    
    1 May1 May 19:38
    
    I won nearly 30k miles up to now. I hope they actually post this. If I win another 3x4k like I did at the end of last week, I’ll have enough for one-way LHR-Doha on Qatar.